It all depends on the amount of competition you are up against. Put yourself in the place of the employer, who will be looking for a number of qualities in the candidates they are interviewing. One of those characteristics will be how clever or hard working they are. The person with a distinction will naturally be presumed to be either more intelligent or hard working than the candidate without one. They will look at other factors, but the person with the distinction has the advantage. You may be entering a field with very little competition or where other candidates do not have a Masters degree, in that case a distinction will be less important.

Publication fees are common in many, but not all, academic journals. To find out what they are search out the web sites of your preferred journals on the internet. Almost of these sites will have a section entitled 'Information for Contributors' or 'Information for Authors'. This will tell you not only what fees might be incurred, but also the 'House Style' of the journal, which will give you information on how to lay out tables, references, spelling conventions etc.

4 year PhD programmes in the UK are relatively new and usually involve a lecture course in the first year combined with short stints in a number of research labs before the student is asked to select a research topic. Although it is possible that some of these programmes would accept self funded students, we are not aware of any offering a mix of 3 years funded one year self financed. Don't worry too much, it's quite unlikely. As you have access to your computer send an email asking the university to clarify the funding arrangements for your PhD - they will not think any worse of you for doing so.

Yes it will reduce your chances of being accepted, but it is by no means impossible. Demand and availability of PhDs varies from subject to subject and so consequently do the standards required to secure a place. Search through the forum for the numerous other threads related to this question.

The department and supervisor is the important thing.

Yes, a Masters with distinction is deemed better than one without. Although many countries do use a PhD with Distinction grade (eg Australia, Netherlands, Portugal) we're not aware of any UK universities awarding this grade.

Yes that would be possible as long as you have some relevant expertise

Outside of academia an MPhil is just another masters degree. Very few people have a clue what they are. In an interview you could try and convince people it's half a PhD and they'd probably believe you, but what would be the point. If you were seeking an academic post then the MPhil would probably not be of much use, but why would you stop at an MPhil if you wanted an academic career?

The problem with an MPhil is that they can be awarded for any number of reasons:

1 - Because, after a year or two of research, the candidate decided that was the degree they should submit a thesis for. Either due to a change in personal circumstances, lack of funding or lack of interest.

2 - Because, after the first year or two of research, the university decided the candidate would not be good enough to complete a PhD and forced them to submit early for an MPhil.

3 - Because, after the first year or two of research, disagreement between the supervisor and the candidate on the progress of the research meant that submitting early for an MPhil was the best option for both parties.

4 - After at least three years research and submitting a thesis for a PhD the candidate, or their thesis, was not considered good enough for the degree of PhD. The examiners can choose to award an MPhil.

It depends on the area of biology you want to go into. If there's lots of others after the places then the grades that you need to get a place go up.

Please send your articles to [email protected] before Friday 20th May.

Here's some ideas for themes to get you started:

How I found my PhD
Combining a PhD and a social life
My mysterious missing supervisor
Nothing ever works
A day in the lab (counting flies no doubt)
What it's like to do a PhD in......

We're expanding the 'PhD Life' section of FindAPhD and we want the experiences of current and former PhD students to fill it. If you're looking for a distraction from a morning in the archives or an afternoon counting red eyed flies then why not jot down some of your PhD experiences for the benefit of those who'd like to follow in your footsteps.

We're after interesting, informative and/or humorous pieces of between 250 and 1000 words. There's a £15 Amazon voucher for any that we publish on the site and a £50 Amazon voucher for the best one. All the decisions are down to us and our decision will be final. Articles must be all you own work and must not be published elsewhere.

good point

Your supervisor and you department have a responsibility to ensure that you are able to complete on time. If the work you are doing will not be finished due to circumstances beyond your control they should help you find a research path which will give you enough results for a reasonable thesis.

With good references there's no harm in applying. However the stipulation is generally that you should have a 2(i) or a 2(ii) plus a masters.

Have a look for the RAE rating. 5 and 5* are the best. See our PhDs Explained section for links and information.